Published: Friday, March 8, 2013 at 10:56 p.m.

Last Modified: Friday, March 8, 2013 at 10:56 p.m.

VENICE - Lupe Gonzalo remembers the first call. It was from a woman who had been forced to overfill the 32-pound bucket of tomatoes. The heavy fruit heaped above the bucket’s brim, but the added work did not mean more money for the worker struggling to make minimum wage in Florida’s fields.

The woman had called the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for help and Gonzalo, 31, answered.

It was shortly after November 2011, when the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange — which represents 90 percent of the state's tomato farm owners — agreed to follow the Fair Food Code of Conduct.

Gonzalo knew, for the first time, that the woman would not have to suffer long.

“For us, it was really beautiful that the rights were there to respect, and we can use them,” she said through a translator Friday.

Gonzalo is one of about 100 people marching along U.S. 41 from Fort Myers to Lakeland. The group is celebrating the rights farmworkers secured. They are also protesting Publix.

The marchers will pass through Sarasota today as they trek to the corporate headquarters of Florida’s largest grocery chain. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been pushing Publix to join other companies like McDonald’s, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, which buy tomatoes from growers who follow the code of conduct.

The companies who participate pay an additional penny per pound of tomatoes. In the first season, those pennies added up to $8 million for farmworkers, according to the Coalition.

“It really makes a change in the life of workers,” Gonzalo said.

For years, Publix has said it does not want to land in the middle of what the company views as a labor dispute between growers and farmworkers. If tomato suppliers need to increase the price of goods to provide legal wages and working conditions, the company said it would rather pay that price than the additional penny per pound.

“However, we will not pay employees of other companies directly for their labor. That is the responsibility of their employer, and we believe all parties would be better served if appropriate wages were paid by growers to their workers, and we were charged accordingly,” reads a message from a Publix spokeswoman.

For many of the major corporations that have joined the fair food effort, the penny is just included in the price of tomatoes and goes through the supply chain to growers who pay their workers, said Laura Safer Espinoza, a former New York Supreme Court judge who now runs the Sarasota-based Fair Foods Standards Council, which oversees participating tomato growers.

She says Publix argument is “not the reality.”

“To me it certainly is about as far from a labor dispute as one could get. This is a partnership between workers and growers and buyers to solve a problem and historical injustices,” Espinoza said.

Gonzalo, who has been working the fields in the U.S. for 12 years, is well-acquainted with the injustices. When she left her home country, Guatemala, she did not anticipate becoming a farmworker — or that the conditions would be so dire.

“I expected to work hard but I expected life would be different, because you hear, ‘Oh, United States!’ ” Gonzalo said.

Instead, she said she headed into an industry where workers had suffered decades of sexual harassment, verbal abuse and minimal wages.

Why are people gathering tomatoes treated this way? she wonders.

“I think it’s because people think farmworkers are afraid to report abuses,” Gonzalo said. “Because they’re from another country or because they’re poor they won’t speak up for themselves.”

On Friday, she was surrounded by people whose chants showed that is not the case.

Although the marchers had been walking for several days, nothing about the protest seemed weary.

At the front of the march young people sang in a truck with speakers playing dance music one minute, and This Little Light of Mine the next. Behind them, the roughly 100 participants chanted and waved enthusiastically. Some chatted with passersby.

Farmworker Leonel Perez, 26, stressed that the march is about educating people they meet along the walk and encouraging consumers to buy fair food.

In past marches, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers brought a replica of the Statue of Liberty carrying a bucket with raised a tomato above her head. Now, the figure was of a farmworker, dressed in jeans. In his arms are a document of rights and a shining bucket bearing the message “New Day.”

The farmworkers hope other industries — beyond the tomato growers — will make changes. People picking bell peppers, chilies and oranges face the same conditions the tomato pickers used to endure, farmworker Cruz Salucio, 28, said.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers tries to defend those workers when abuses occur, but without the growers signing on to a code of conduct it is difficult to prevent unfair wages and harassment, Salucio said.

“We’re opening or creating a path and establishing important precedents in the tomato industry to serves as a model,” he said. “We’d love for one day that ‘New Day’ to shine throughout the agriculture industry.”

<p><em>VENICE</em> - Lupe Gonzalo remembers the first call. It was from a woman who had been forced to overfill the 32-pound bucket of tomatoes. The heavy fruit heaped above the bucket's brim, but the added work did not mean more money for the worker struggling to make minimum wage in Florida's fields. </p><p>The woman had called the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for help and Gonzalo, 31, answered. </p><p>It was shortly after November 2011, when the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange — which represents 90 percent of the state's tomato farm owners — agreed to follow the Fair Food Code of Conduct. </p><p>Gonzalo knew, for the first time, that the woman would not have to suffer long. </p><p>“For us, it was really beautiful that the rights were there to respect, and we can use them,” she said through a translator Friday. </p><p>Gonzalo is one of about 100 people marching along U.S. 41 from Fort Myers to Lakeland. The group is celebrating the rights farmworkers secured. They are also protesting Publix.</p><p>The marchers will pass through Sarasota today as they trek to the corporate headquarters of Florida's largest grocery chain. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been pushing Publix to join other companies like McDonald's, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, which buy tomatoes from growers who follow the code of conduct.</p><p>The companies who participate pay an additional penny per pound of tomatoes. In the first season, those pennies added up to $8 million for farmworkers, according to the Coalition. </p><p>“It really makes a change in the life of workers,” Gonzalo said. </p><p>For years, Publix has said it does not want to land in the middle of what the company views as a labor dispute between growers and farmworkers. If tomato suppliers need to increase the price of goods to provide legal wages and working conditions, the company said it would rather pay that price than the additional penny per pound.</p><p>“However, we will not pay employees of other companies directly for their labor. That is the responsibility of their employer, and we believe all parties would be better served if appropriate wages were paid by growers to their workers, and we were charged accordingly,” reads a message from a Publix spokeswoman.</p><p>For many of the major corporations that have joined the fair food effort, the penny is just included in the price of tomatoes and goes through the supply chain to growers who pay their workers, said Laura Safer Espinoza, a former New York Supreme Court judge who now runs the Sarasota-based Fair Foods Standards Council, which oversees participating tomato growers. </p><p>She says Publix argument is “not the reality.” </p><p>“To me it certainly is about as far from a labor dispute as one could get. This is a partnership between workers and growers and buyers to solve a problem and historical injustices,” Espinoza said.</p><p>Gonzalo, who has been working the fields in the U.S. for 12 years, is well-acquainted with the injustices. When she left her home country, Guatemala, she did not anticipate becoming a farmworker — or that the conditions would be so dire.</p><p>“I expected to work hard but I expected life would be different, because you hear, 'Oh, United States!' ” Gonzalo said. </p><p>Instead, she said she headed into an industry where workers had suffered decades of sexual harassment, verbal abuse and minimal wages.</p><p>Why are people gathering tomatoes treated this way? she wonders.</p><p>“I think it's because people think farmworkers are afraid to report abuses,” Gonzalo said. “Because they're from another country or because they're poor they won't speak up for themselves.”</p><p>On Friday, she was surrounded by people whose chants showed that is not the case.</p><p>Although the marchers had been walking for several days, nothing about the protest seemed weary.</p><p>At the front of the march young people sang in a truck with speakers playing dance music one minute, and This Little Light of Mine the next. Behind them, the roughly 100 participants chanted and waved enthusiastically. Some chatted with passersby.</p><p>Farmworker Leonel Perez, 26, stressed that the march is about educating people they meet along the walk and encouraging consumers to buy fair food. </p><p>In past marches, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers brought a replica of the Statue of Liberty carrying a bucket with raised a tomato above her head. Now, the figure was of a farmworker, dressed in jeans. In his arms are a document of rights and a shining bucket bearing the message “New Day.”</p><p>The farmworkers hope other industries — beyond the tomato growers — will make changes. People picking bell peppers, chilies and oranges face the same conditions the tomato pickers used to endure, farmworker Cruz Salucio, 28, said. </p><p>The Coalition of Immokalee Workers tries to defend those workers when abuses occur, but without the growers signing on to a code of conduct it is difficult to prevent unfair wages and harassment, Salucio said. </p><p>“We're opening or creating a path and establishing important precedents in the tomato industry to serves as a model,” he said. “We'd love for one day that 'New Day' to shine throughout the agriculture industry.”</p>